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Pumas quell the Thunder
NBL Conference: Sutton 100 Worthing 96 OT
Sutton Pumas produced an extraordinary fourth quarter surge to dampen the title hopes of Worthing Thunder, levelling with the south coast side at 86-86 at the close of regulation before eventually emerging in overtime with a 100-96 victory.
Worthing - sparked by Sean Hampton's game-high 40 points flurry, raced into a 17-26 lead after the opening quarter, a cushion which stood at 13 at the end of the third. However lowly Sutton rallied back to stun their guests.
Reading 95 Teesside 110
TVL Mohawks continue to look down on the rest of the Conference after another 100 plus points put paid to challengers Reading Rockets.
And with fellow title hopefuls, Worthing Thunder, crashing to a four point defeat at basement club Sutton in the shock result of the season so far, the win leaves the still-unbeaten Mohawks on course for a sustained challenge for the Conference League crown and the challengers realistically reduced to just two sides - Plymouth and Solent.
But Mohawks were really made to fight for the 110-95 win by a spirited Rockets outfit, in a game that had to be halted for half-an-hour after just four minutes play when Lijah Perkins dunked the ball with such force that he destroyed the backboard.
At the time of the stoppage, six points without reply, including a basket from Jason Swaine and two free throws from EJ Harrison, saw Mohawks 10-4 up and on a roll. The last thing they wanted was a delay.
Rivermead Leisure Complex staff worked frantically to save the fixture and did remarkably well to transform the venue by switching from the showcourt to a side court with a minimum of fuss.
Having already performed the usual pre-match rituals and nicely settling into their rhythm, a number of the Teesside players were clearly agitated by the situation and found it difficult to get back into the swing of things when the action restarted although, by the sixth minute the side still enjoyed an 18-9 lead.
This was to be short lived though, when Rockets boss Dave Titmuss called a timeout to halt the slide.
American David Washington, who was picked up by the Berkshire club after being released early in the season by Edinburgh Rocks, Evan York and Ted Smith began to execute some strong inside work that Mohawks had no answer to, and put in an 11-6 run to reduce the gap to four at the first interval (20-24).
James Nicholson was instrumental in keeping Hanson’s side in front, by first sinking his own rebound and following it up with the first of several tremendous defensive blocks throughout the game to keep out Washington. And Steve Butler was denied two points when his basket was deemed to have been launched after the end-of-quarter buzzer.
The home side clearly sensed that there were opportunities to exploit and wasted little time at the start of the second quarter in taking advantage of their visitors’ off-target passing and shooting. After almost two minutes of play only two points had been scored, by Rockets, reducing Mohawks lead to only two.
Hanson, in response, benched Dennis Ley, Pete Knechtel, Steve Butler and Nicholson in favour of Ralph Bucci, Neil Hopper, Perkins and Swaine. The move failed to have the desired effect immediately however, and with four minutes gone Mohawks found themselves behind for the only time in the game at 29-28, before Perkins restored the lead by rebounding Swaine’s off target attempt at a three.
Reading refused to give in, and with the help of some over-zealous refereeing became adept at drawing fouls. From the next 17 points, Rockets made 10 visits to the free throw line, while in the same five minute spell Swaine, Butler and Knechtel each added threes and Neil Hopper, who was enjoying his most productive performance for some time, sank two from three free throws in his six point tally.
Evan York gave his side real hope going into the half time break, with a three right on the buzzer reeling Mohawks in again to just a two point lead (48-46).
But there was anger from the Reading bench as referees were oblivious to the plight of home star Ted Smith, who had taken a bang to the head and was staggering around the court clearly concussed for an extraordinarily long time before being spotted and substituted.
After three minutes of the second half Reading were still looking capable of an upset after Smith, who had recovered during the interval, levelled the scores at 56-56 following a steal off Bucci, and John Hodds who, with 22 points was Rockets top scorer, hovered menacingly under the basket.
But something then clicked in Mohawks play, and a barnstorming 23-8 run saw the side go 77-64 ahead and put paid to any thoughts Reading might have had of taking the match points, with Hopper, Swaine, Harrison and the game’s top scorer, Bucci, with 28, sharing the scoring responsibility.
The final quarter was very open with baskets traded throughout. The biggest difference was that most of the home side’s points were scored through inside work, while Mohawks were equally happy from inside or outside the arc and featured three pointers from Harrison, Swaine and Ley, whose entire 10 point contribution came in the final 5 minutes.
Coach Hanson admitted that Mohawks were knocked out of their stride early on and took time to recover. “It is always possible when you have a break in the game that one team has a chance to regroup and the other to lose their momentum,” he said. “Unfortunately for us, the balance swung Reading’s way and stayed with them for a while.”
But what turned the game around, insisted Hanson, was the character of the team. He added: “Once we realised the game was on the line we really needed to focus on it, change our attitude and raise our intensity. And the players did that.”
But one player stood out for Mohawks – Neil Hopper. The skipper is not known for his big scores, but with 17 points and some good rebounding and defence, this was a big game said Hanson: “We expect some players to do this every game, but I specifically asked Neil to concentrate on other things tonight and he came through to do extremely well.”
Solent Stars 92 Manchester Magic 77
Without three of their regular starting five, Kevin St. Kitts, Sean McKie and Jon Linsley, the Magic travelled to Southampton to take on the Solent Stars but came up short in a 92-77 loss.
The guests started well, with Wayne Mulgrave and Sergio Lara-Bercial leading the way and ended the first quarter level at 31-31. Unfortunately, the game was lost for them in the last 6 minutes of the second quarter, when they conceded 17 points without reply, to end the first half down 55-38. Despite their best efforts, Manchester could not close the gap and were eventually beaten by 15 points. A valiant last-quarter effort, including two 3 pointers from Lara-Bercial and ten points from Mulgrave, was not quite good enough.
Steve Davison scored five important points for Solent at the start of the final quarter. Manchester made thirteen visits to the free throw line in the last quarter as they forced Solent into fouling as they took on the defence. Solent, on the other hand, were content to play the ball around the defence looking for the safe shot. They made no visits to the free throw line during the quarter. With the result never in doubt, Solent were able to look on a job well done despite the absence through injury of Alan Cunningham, Mark Scott (who coached but did not play), Duane Laight and Alan McDonald, all of whom will be out for at least another fortnight.
Magic coach Jeff Jones was upbeat about the result, pleased with the way his weakened team had performed and philosophical about the disastrous end to the second quarter.
Kingston Wildcats 90 Plymouth Raiders 96
Reigning Conference champions Plymouth Raiders withstood a late run by Kingston to win 96 -90 at Tolworth Recreation Centre. This leaves the Raiders hot on the heels of Teesside, in second place and the Wildcats still down in the seventh spot.
Kingston got off to a disastrous start, a 15 - 0 Plymouth run left them trailing 26 - 7 after eight minutes. The raiders continued to exert pressure and dominated the second quarter with some great long range shooting from American guard Todd Cetnar and Roderick Wellington. The Wildcats had started to respond with jump shots from Andy Powlesland and new signing Alan Hopper, but too many turnovers restricted their scoring opportunities. Plymouth were firmly in control at half-time, having extended their lead to 57 - 36, mainly due to 18 points from the unstoppable Cetnar.
In the second half Kingston looked like a new team, Powlesland in particular helping to keep the home fans hopes alive, as they matched the champions basket for basket. The Wildcats had these fans and the travelling Raiders supporters on the edge of their seats as they trimmed the Plymouth lead to just 4 points in the last minute of the game. However six missed foul shots in the last two minutes proved to be Kingston's undoing, as Plymouth showed their class by holding on to win the game.
The final period belonged to Jamie Whitaker, who hit 19 points with a combination of strong drives, foul shots and jump shots from all over the court, on his way to a team high 30 points. Player of the game was Cetnar who hit 37 points and had 7 steals without seeming to break into a sweat.
Interbasket 75 Coventry 71
A magnificent comeback saw Inter Basket achieve their second victory of the season with a pulsating 75-71 victory over Coventry Crusaders at the Space Centre in Hackney on Saturday night.
Inter's early 5-0 lead was soon pegged back by Coventry and the home side's inability to convert easy opportunities saw them trail as the visitors Drew Barrett began to score at will. The first quarter score of 14-17 flattering the Londoners.
The second period saw a disastrous start as Coventry scored the first nine points to lead by 12. Inter reduced the deficit to eight, but threes from Matt Collins and Derrick Pope restored the double digit advantage for the Midland side. The teams traded baskets for the remainder of the quarter before Pope scored his 16th point of the first half to give his side a 41-29 mid-way lead. However Inter's defence at the end of the quarter, following a Coventry time out, was an indication of what was to come.
When Pope made the front end of two foul shots after three minutes of the third quarter, the visitors lead was 46-31. Franck Batimba scored four straight for Inter but Chris Harper soon restored the 15 point advantage. Suddenly the hosts seemed to up their defensive intensity. Perry Lawson, in particular. was cutting out the threat of Matt Collins and a 7-0 run brought the deficit back to eight. Coventry restored it to 10, but the momentum had changed entirely, with a 6-2 run for Inter leaving the score at 52-58 at the end of the third stanza.
Pope with a pair of foul shots and a Barrett two opened the Crusaders lead to nine, but Inter would not be denied. An 11-0 run, sparked by five points from Mansour Mbye, gave the home side a 64-62 lead with four minutes remaining. Harper tied the game up before a huge three-pointer from Batimba restored his teams lead. Pope hit another two from the line with Mbye replying with another strong inside move.
Collins made two from the line to leave the score at 69-68 in the final minute. Inter missed again from the inside but got the offensive rebound. Two passes and Batimba made his fourth three-pointer of the night. Coventry were not finished and Harper's trey again made it a one point game.
Coventry called time out with the clock showing 4.4 seconds remaining but the table officials ruling that an error meant a further three seconds should be added. Inter's captain, Andrew Bailey, surprisingly made only one of two free shots giving the visitors the chance of the win. Collins came down at speed but his attempted three-pointer brought a sensational block from Lawson allowing Batimba to score on the buzzer and the Londoners to record a sensational if unlikely victory.
Batimba 27, Irish 13 and Mbye 12 led the scorers for Inter Basket with Pope 29, Barrett 16 and Collins 11 the high men for Coventry. But keeping the visitors to just 30 second half points was the undoubted key to the win.
NBL Division One: North London Lords 66 Derbyshire Arrows 89
The Derbyshire Arrows swept to another impressive road victory this time over the North London Lords to consolidate their position at the top of Division 1, Bevington (31) & Davidson (20) combined for 51 points as the Arrows won 66 – 89.
The Arrows started brightly and troubled the heavier London team throughout with their speed, Bevington & Davidson combined repeatedly with Gayle as the Arrows led 25 – 13. David Waite (11) brought energy and rebounding into the Arrows game in a more evenly contested second quarter but the Arrows still managed to increase their advantage reaching the interval 49 – 34 ahead.
The visitors were able to control much of the tempo in the second half and although the quarters were close the Arrows always held the edge, eventually running out comfortable winners.
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